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Dog Lovers Book Club - January 2022

It's a new day. It's a new month. It's a New Year! And it's time to read new books! 
Whether you decide to spend your summer holidays at home or away, you'll find many new releases in our Dog Lovers Book Club January 2022 selection to learn new skills or keep you and the kids entertained!

MUSTER DOGS
by Aticia Grey

An outback story of red dirt, kelpies and the future of a family farm. Life on the land is often boom or bust, forever at the mercy of Mother Nature.


Aticia 'Teesh' Grey took on the manager's role on her family's West Pilbara cattle station a few years after picking up her first team of kelpies. Almost immediately she was faced with a severe and devastating drought that forced her to question everything she thought she knew about the fragile country of her home.


Through the heartbreaking rollercoaster journey that followed, Teesh's loyal canine companions proved invaluable as she and her family worked towards securing the property's future. The versatility of these amazing dogs took the station in directions no one anticipated.

In 2020, Teesh got the chance to showcase the potential of working dogs more widely. Joining the ABC TV series Muster Dogs, Teesh and four other farming families took on the challenge of training new kelpie pups and testing their worth on the properties they run. Through this experience they showed the bonds that are formed between human and dog and vividly demonstrated a positive environmental future for farming in rural Australia.

This is a story of love, laughter, loss and hope, as Teesh finds her feet in an ever-changing world with the help of the dogs who have stood by her side through it all.

Paperback, 304 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 17th November 2021

Price: $28.35 from
www.booktopia.com.au

DOGS ON THE TRAIL
A Year in the Life

by Blair Braverman, Quince Mountain

A delightful photographic journey into a year in the life of a team of sled dogs, based on Braverman's wildly popular Twitter feed.

When Blair Braverman started posting pictures of her dog team on Twitter, she had no idea the response she would get. Being a musher, after all, isn't just about racing and raising dogs from puppyhood to retirement (and beyond) is a full-time job. 

She and her husband, musher Quince Mountain, wanted to share stories about life with their dog team. And not just the big stuff, like expeditions and wild animal encounters, but also the everyday things: the challenge of storing a thousand pounds of raw meat, scouting new trails with the dogs, the decisions that go into putting a team together, how she trains puppies to be brave. These were goofy stories, scary stories, heartfelt stories, stories that clearly connected with people and kept going viral.

Inspired by those connections, Dogs on the Trail is a chronicle of a year in the life of their dog team. Beginning in the fall as the weather starts to cool, training on both dry land and in the snow, then camping and racing. Spring brings mud -lousy for sledding, but the dogs love it. And summer is the season of puppies. The book ends on a beginning, in anticipation of the adventurous lives that the new pups have in store.



An irresistible adventure, Dogs on the Trail will delight and entertain while taking you inside a musher's world, and showing you why the wilderness isn't simply a place to visit but also a home to return to.

Hardcover, 144 pages
Publisher: ECCO PR, 16th November 2021

Price: $30.90 at
www.booktopia.com.au

THE FOREVER DOG
by Karen Becker, Rodney Habib

In this pathbreaking guide, two of the world’s most popular and trusted pet-care advocates reveal new science to teach us how to delay ageing and provide a long, happy, healthy life for our canine companions. 

Over the past few decades, many dogs have been getting sicker and dying prematurely. Why?


Rodney Habib and Dr Karen Shaw Becker have galvanized the best wisdom from top geneticists, microbiologists and longevity researchers across the globe to answer this question. Now, they will provide the practical, proven tools to protect our loyal four-legged friends, interviewing people whose dogs have lived into their twenties – and even their thirties – along the way.

The Forever Dog plan focuses on the latest scientific research surrounding food and nutrition, movement, environmental exposure and stress reduction, from the pros and cons of various types of pet food – including what commercial manufacturers don’t want us to know – to the role our own lifestyles and vets’ choices play.

This definitive dog care guide empowers us with the knowledge we need to keep our dogs health and happy for years to come.


Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 8th September 2021

Price: $28.50 from
www.booktopia.com.au

ONE UNWAVERING FRIEND
Heartwarming Tales of Men and Dogs

by Chris Blazina

After studying the lives of men who appear in this book, I concluded I was part of a community that I did not know existed. Dickens, Darwin, Byrd, and Freud

All friends that I never knew but nonetheless feel connected to through their love of dogs. It struck me one day that I took a cue from these men. 

To really understand who they were you must look to their dogs. The bond reveals an aspect of men that was not commonly known or in some cases, purposefully hidden from view. To really see these places where man meets dog offers a fresh perspective, windows into the best parts of who we are.

I think back 50 years ago to when I was 5 years old. At the time I was somewhat obsessed with drawing dogs driving cars. Recently, I unfolded one of these masterpieces that I had tucked away long ago. 

On the back of the image was my child-like scrawl explaining the drawing on the other side. The words referred to the canine in the driver's seat. But what caught my attention was the mention of "Chris Dog" a reference to my own pedigree. By my reckoning, I was part dog. 

The piece itself was not exactly a foreshadowing of a promising art career. Instead, it spoke to the way I would motor through my life, with a canine companion at my side.

Paperback, 148 pages
Published: 7th November 2021


Price: $29.90 from www.booktopia.com.au

10-STEP DRAWING DOGS
Learn to Draw 60 Canines in 10 Easy Steps!
by Justine Lecouffe

Learn to draw your favourite dog breeds, step by step, with Ten Step Drawing: Dogs.

The blank page can be daunting, but the fun and approachable books in the Ten-Step Drawing series offer a quick and easy starting point for any doodler, illustrator, or aspiring artist to be creative. Featuring illustrated tutorials for drawing a variety of different animals, flowers, plants, and people, each book in this appealing series breaks down each subject into 10 simple steps. And all you need is a pen or pencil and a piece of paper!


Handy prompts help you learn to draw by encouraging you to express creative individuality, while helpful general drawing tips enable you to try out your drawing skills on other subjects not featured in the book. The projects feature instructions for graphite pencil, ink, and coloured pencil, for a well-rounded introduction to drawing.

Learn to draw more than 60 dog breeds, including:
✔️ Labrador Retrievers
✔️ Golden Retrievers
✔️ French Bulldogs
✔️ Pugs
✔️ Poodles
✔️ Chihuahuas
✔️ Great Danes... And many more!

The perfect reference for your first steps as an aspiring artist, Ten Step Drawing: Dogs is sure to give you the courage to break out a pencil and paper and draw to your heart's content!


Paperback, 128 pages
Published: 14th December 2021


Price: $33.35 at www.booktopia.com.au

BOOK CLUB – KIDS’ CORNER

THE AWSOMELY FABULOUS DOG-WALKING SOCIETY
The Case of the Disappearing Diamonds

by Tiffany Nicole Smith

The Awesomely Fabulous Dog-Walking Society is officially in business! Or is it?

Best friends Fisher, Langley, and Valentina start a dog-walking service to make some extra cash. This is a serious business. They have a full website, social media pages, an official logo, and business cards. Their hard work pays off because business is booming. They have so many clients that they add another member to their crew, the new girl, Cici. Soon after Cici is hired, jewellery turns up missing throughout the neighbourhood-mostly from customers Cici has worked for. The town council wants to shut the Dog Walking Society down for good. It's up to them to find the real thief before they are out of business.


Finding a jewel thief isn't easy, especially when drama gets in the way. Langley and Fisher have been besties their whole lives, but suddenly they can't be in the same room without fighting. Valentina's mega crush, whose mom is best friends with hers, moves in with her family temporarily. Cici is trying her best to adjust but moving to a new state and leaving her friends behind has made her lonelier than she's ever felt in her life.

The Awesomely Fabulous Dog-Walking Society must find a way to work together and defend their reputation if they want to stay in business. The girls trade in their dog leashes for detective hats. Will they learn how to become detectives and find the real culprit before all their hard work goes down the drain?


Paperback, 188 pages
Published: 3rd September 2021
For Ages: 9 - 12 years old


Price: $18.20 at www.booktopia.com.au

OLD TOFFER’S BOOK OF CONSEQUENTIAL DOGS
by Christopher Reid, Sara Ogilvie (Illustrator)

T. S. Eliot's best-selling collection of practical cat poems has been one of the most successful poetry collections ever. At last, in the 80th year of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, we have the companion volume that Eliot had envisaged, written by master poet and Costa-winner, Christopher Reid.

This wonderfully witty and varied collection, illustrated in full-colour by the brilliant Sara Ogilvie, is perfect for younger readers to appreciate. A book that will be enjoyed by generations to come, perfect for reading together!


Hardcover, 96 pages
Publisher: Faber Children, 2nd November 2021
For Ages: 7+ years old


Price: $24.75 from www.booktopia.com.au


A DANGEROUS TIME FOR DOGS
The long journey home

by Eric Armstrong, illustrated by Natalie Stead

A charming and topical tale about a number of dogs violently snatched from their homes and taken to an isolated compound in preparation for their illegal sale. 

One of the captive dogs, a young Lhasa Apso, tries to organise an escape aided by a very unusual cat and a feral Patterdale terrier. 

Relentlessly pursued through the countryside by criminals, the dogs have to live by their wits in order to complete the long journey home. As their enemies close in, a vengeful predator occasionally assists them as he tries to hunt down the dog who betrayed him as a puppy.

Paperback, 262 pages
Publisher: Keith Beck, 6th December 2021


Price: $16.62 from www.amazon.com.au

DOGS IN DISGUISE

by Peter Bently, John Bond (Illustrator)

An exciting new collaboration between the Roald Dahl Funny Prize-winning author Peter Bently and the incredibly talented illustrator John Bond!

Dogs come in all kinds of colours and sizes

But when no one’s looking they put on disguises!

A joyful peek into the crazy antics of all sorts of dogs in disguise! Dressing up in clothing they find at home, these adventurous pooches blend into the crowd at all the places dogs aren’t allowed, like the store, the cinema and the swimming pool! But, not all of their disguises go quite to plan, with hilarious results . . .

From Schnauzers in trousers to cosmonaut Cockapoos, this jaunty rhyming text from hugely popular, award-winning author, Peter Bently, with brilliantly witty illustrations from John Bond, creator of the Mini Rabbit books, will have children howling with laughter!




Hardcover, 32 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 3rd January 2022 

Price: $31.50 from www.booktopia.com.au
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